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Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Woman survives 195 hours buried in rubble from China's earthquake.
CHENGDU, China (CNN) -- A woman who survived on rainwater has been freed after being trapped in rubble for 195 hours in the aftermath of the Chinese earthquake, which has now killed more than 40,000. The 60-year-old woman escaped with just facial bruises and a minor fracture during her eight-day ordeal.
The official Xinhua news agency identified her as Wang Youqun, a retiree, and said she had been unconscious for a day when a falling girder hit her head in the May 12 quake, The Associated Press reported.
She was apparently trapped in a landslide that swept away a temple in the city of Pengzhou and was intially able to move, but a later aftershock trapped her between two rocks, according to AP.
Her dramatic discovery came hours after rescue teams pulled two men men from the rubble in Sichuan province.
One of the men was found in a mine in Qingchuna county and a second in a hydroelectric plant in Wenchuan county, state-run media reported.
They had been buried for six days and 20 hours and seven days and 11 hours, respectively, according to China's Xinhua news agency.
The rescues give a glimmer of hope amid the rising daily death toll. Official figures show the number of victims has risen to 40,075 in the Sichuan province alone.
The United States announced Tuesday it would send a shipment of specialized recovery equipment and a team of specialists to southwestern China this week. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) says more than $815,000 worth of additional assistance will be sent to China.
That brings the total USAID assistance to China to more than $1.3 million. Last weekend, the United States sent U.S. Air Force C-17s carrying aid to China, including tents and generators.
After signing a sympathy book with the first lady at the Chinese Embassy in Washington, President Bush vowed to "stand ready to help in any way the Chinese government would like."Labels: China, disasters, epic, health news
Posted at 3:29 PM. 
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